Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
`Then rose all those virgins, and trimmed their lamps,
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their torches.
Matthew — The Gospel of the promised King. Five discourses punctuate the narrative; roughly sixty-five Old Testament citations bind the story to the prophets.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first — the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Luke 12:35Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
leads to
Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
But the wise ones took oil in flasks along with their lamps.
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Through
2 Peter 3:14Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight.
leads to
Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.
Through
Revelation 3:2Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
leads to
“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who remains awake and clothed, so that he will not go naked and let his shame be exposed.”
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom:
The whole web at once: see the Arc.
The verses this one reaches5
Be dressed for service and keep your lamps burning.
Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight.
Those I love, I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.
But I have this against you: You have abandoned your first love.
Wake up and strengthen what remains, which was about to die; for I have found your deeds incomplete in the sight of My God.
Voices5
(Verse 7) Then all those virgins arose, and adorned their lamps. All the virgins arose, and each adorned their lamps, that is, their senses, in which they received the oil of knowledge, so that they may have the works of virtue, which would shine before the true judge.
Jerome· Commentary on Matthew, 420patristic
Then all these virgins arose,....
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748)reformed
Trimmed their lamps - Burning until midnight, the oil was exhausted: they gave a dim and obscure light. They trimmed them by removing the burnt parts of the linen or the torch, so that they would burn clear. It was needful, also, to dip them again in oil, or to pour oil upon them. This strikingly represents the conduct of most people at the approach of death. They then begin to make ready. They are alarmed, anxious, and trembling, and then they ask the aid of others, but often when it is forever too late.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)evangelical
Are we, then--with some even superior expositors--to conclude that the foolish virgins must represent true Christians as well as do the wise, since only true Christians have the Spirit, and that the difference between the two classes consists only in the one having the necessary watchfulness which the other wants?
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, 1871reformed
Note, Even counterfeit graces will serve a man to make a show of when he comes to die, as well as they have done all his life long; the hypocrite's hopes blaze when they are just expiring, like a lightening before death.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
